Forum Archive :
Variations
While attending Justin and Rynell Nunez's wedding, I had a discussion with
Tom Fahland of the San Diego Backgammon Club concerning his new backgammon
invention -- the Joker Cube.
The Joker Cube is a second cube that is placed in the center at the start
of the game. It has no numbers. It is used by either player to force a re-
roll. Once a player uses it, the other player has possession of it, like
the regular cube.
I think it would be a very interesting side-event at a tournament and am
interested in what others think. I like the idea of the Joker Cube being
employed anytime before a man has been borne-off, as I think it would slow
play considerably once the bear-off had begun, especially against anchors,
while players considered using it or not, although playing with a clock
could alleviate this problem.
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Bob Koca writes:
There a few rules that need clarification.
1) Can it be used on the opening roll? If so is it both players again
rolling?
2) Suppose that A has cube access, rolls, and then the reroll option is
invoked (by either player). Before rerolling can A cube?
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Tom Fahland writes:
My thoughts were this: make backgammon even more skill and less luck. How
many times have we played great to loose to a 35-1/17-1 shot!
As far as the question about opening roll, yes it could be used then but I
would imagine that would be a mistake, ie, giving away the power of the
joker cube to a mere 3-1 opening seems like a waste.
This cube would also modify your play depending on if you owned it or not
(ie, you are blitzing, he has 2 men on the bar, you can leave him a double
5 to come in and hit, etc, things like that). I just think it adds a
measurable amount of increased skill and that same amount of less luck?
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Steve Mellen writes:
The strategies would be interesting. Despite the name of the variation,
saving your cube until your opponent hits a 17-1 or 35-1 shot is almost
surely suboptimal. The math changes even for simple situations -- imagine
the power of the joker cube in a simple pay-now decision, for example. A
12-number shot becomes a 4-number shot if you can force your opponent to
roll a hitting number twice in a row. Thus, a standard position with a
racing lead against an anchor becomes much stronger, which in turn affects
the value of many other positions.
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Variations
- Acey-deucy (J. Nagel, Dec 2004)
- Acey-deucy (Steve Ewert, June 1998)
- Acey-deucy (Lee+, Jan 1997)
- Acey-deucy (John David Galt+, Dec 1995)
- Acey-deucy (James Eibisch, Apr 1995)
- Backwards play (Colin Bell+, Feb 1996)
- Bad advice (Jason Lee+, Mar 2004)
- Best-of-n variant of match play (Tim Chow+, Feb 2009)
- Bluff Cube (Timothy Chow+, Dec 2012)
- BluffGammon (Christian Munk-Christensen, June 2009)
- Cancelgammon (Ilia Guzei+, Mar 2004)
- Domino backgammon (Laury Chizlett, Sept 1999)
- Duodecagammon (David Moeser, Dec 2000)
- Duplicate backgammon (Dean Gay+, Jan 1997)
- Duplicate backgammon (Albert Steg, Feb 1996)
- Exact bearoff (Chris Moellering+, Dec 2002)
- Fevga (George, Sept 2004)
- Fevga (or Moultezim) (Igor Sheyn+, May 1995)
- Freeze-out match (Dave Brotherton, July 1998)
- Gabgammon (jckz, Oct 2005)
- Greek backgammon (Alexandre Charitopoulos, Aug 2003)
- Greek backgammon (Alexandros Chatzipetros, June 1997)
- Greek backgammon (Marc Jacobs+, Feb 1994)
- Hit man (Matt Reklaitis, Jan 2004)
- Hyper backgammon (Gregg Cattanach+, Dec 2000)
- Hyper backgammon (Michael A Urban, Oct 1993)
- International backgammon (Bob Lancaster+, Oct 2002)
- Jacquet (Mark Driver, June 2001)
- Joker cube (Joe Russell+, May 2011)
- Khachapuri (Michael Petch+, Sept 2010)
- Kleinman's tandem backgammon (Fabrice Liardet+, May 2010)
- LongRun (Bill Hickey, Mar 2010)
- Longgammon (Michael Strato, Dec 2000)
- Low number first, fixed dice, others. (Walter Trice, Jan 1997)
- Mexican (Tom Henry, Apr 1997)
- Middle Eastern backgammon (Alan Cairns, Mar 2002)
- Misere (backgammon to lose) (Jason Lee+, July 2004)
- Misere (backgammon to lose) (Jason Lee+, Apr 1995)
- Misere, Chase, Skewed dice (Stein Kulseth, Jan 1997)
- Nackgammon (Ken Arnold, July 1996)
- Nackgammon Shuffle (Stick, Sept 2011)
- Nackgammon opening moves (Warwick+, Feb 2002)
- Narde (narde, Nov 2006)
- Nardi (KL Gerber+, Nov 2002)
- No hit (RedTop+, May 2004)
- Nuclear backgammon (Walt Swan, Apr 1997)
- Old English (Nick Wedd+, Feb 1996)
- One roll lookahead (Stephen Turner, Mar 1997)
- Opening slot rule (Gregg Cattanach, June 2006)
- Other variations (Douglas Zare, Feb 2000)
- Plakoto (Ed Dengler+, May 1995)
- Plakoto (Pasteel M., Feb 1994)
- Plakoto express (Athansios Vagias, Feb 2005)
- Portes (George, Sept 2004)
- Roll-over (Edward D. Collins, Oct 1997)
- Russian backgammon (Daavid Turnbull, Aug 1991)
- SassanGammon (Chiva Tafazzoli+, June 2009)
- Shesh Besh (G.S., May 2003)
- Simborg Rule (Scott+, Feb 2005)
- Slot backgammon (Fabrice Liardet+, Aug 2008)
- Sudden death, Woodpecker, Gerhardsen (Fredrik Dahl, Jan 1997)
- Tablestakes betting (TrueMoneygames, June 2002)
- Takhteh (Bruce Scott+, Mar 2003)
- Tandem Backgammon (Mislav Kovacic, Feb 2012)
- Tavla (Arda Findikoglu, Nov 2004)
- Tavla (ucc02cx+, Feb 1997)
- Tavli (Portes, Plakoto, and Fevga) (Jens Larsen, July 1997)
- Tavli question (Brus+, Apr 2011)
- Tracy turn around (Michael J. Zehr, Feb 1996)
- Tri-gammon (Gregg Cattanach, Sept 2000)
- Trictrac (David Levy+, May 1998)
- Trigammon (James Eibisch, Jan 1997)
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